Whoa~! Rein 'em in here and show your horse! 2026

MyBuddy

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Now that we have a little less snow on the ground and some of the grass is actually still green, I let Cheyenne out free while I cleaned her stall and let the other two finish their grain. I will do this once in awhile with each of them. But only one at a time. Using the dynamic of being herd bound I know that the one out loose will really never leave. Sometimes they've strayed a little too far but the whinnying of the other two will always bring them back.

And Cheyenne is a veteran at this. She usually knows her boundaries. I started her out first doing this and she quickly learned that if she strayed too far, she'd get corralled.

So yesterday morning I check on Cheyenne while I'm doing stalls and see she's a bit too far off to the south of the property. Very seldom is she over there and she was getting a little bit too far away. So I stepped out to call her and took a little video. When my daughter was here she said that she was down by the horses one day and she said Cheyenne was not even paying attention to her so she called her. By name. And she said she looked up and came over to me! I said, oh yeah, she knows her name. She's the only one that really knows her name. She was my first horse and I was always saying her name. And, like a dog, she recognizes it now. So I took this video to show her how she recognizes her name.

Well, she came to me and I thought she was going to go right over to the gate to go in with the other two but she still wanted to graze. She knew she had gone too far so she just scooted over to the middle of the property. 😁 That's one thing she knows. If she's too far and she knows I'm coming, she knows she better get closer or you're going in the corral. :tap: So I let her graze for another 20 minutes or so and then I went to get her again
 
This was on Tuesday, before we got all that wind and snow. I let Cheyenne out again like I was doing for the last couple of days. I give them all their grain first thing. And with Cheyenne I just leave the stall gate open. When she's done she just walks on out and goes to her favorite spot to graze on some grass. I get the other two horses out into the corral, get them their hay, clean the Stalls, empty and clean the water buckets and fill them, go dump the manure, put hay in each stall for the evening and sweep out the barn. It may take me 45 minutes to an hour something like that. When I'm done it's time for Cheyenne to go in the Corral with the others.

This time when I called her she was more than ready to come in. She immediately turned and came to me. Of course I had a cookie for her too. Train them like a dog! LOL

 
This was on Tuesday, before we got all that wind and snow. I let Cheyenne out again like I was doing for the last couple of days. I give them all their grain first thing. And with Cheyenne I just leave the stall gate open. When she's done she just walks on out and goes to her favorite spot to graze on some grass. I get the other two horses out into the corral, get them their hay, clean the Stalls, empty and clean the water buckets and fill them, go dump the manure, put hay in each stall for the evening and sweep out the barn. It may take me 45 minutes to an hour something like that. When I'm done it's time for Cheyenne to go in the Corral with the others.

This time when I called her she was more than ready to come in. She immediately turned and came to me. Of course I had a cookie for her too. Train them like a dog! LOL

Beautiful!!!
 
Well, last night we had a little problem with our Palomino, Sandy. :(

With all this cold weather I've been discriminating about when to leave them outside or not. Yesterday was a sunny, fairly calm day so I let them out as soon as the sun was in the corral. Which was about 10:30. I figured I'd bring them right back in as soon as the sun goes down. Then it really gets cold again with no sun to warm them.

So about 4:00pm I brought them in. I figured I'd just give them some grain at that time and when we go back out around 7:30-8:00 I'll give them their hay.

So I set the grain buckets in the stalls and brought them inside and left.

When my husband and I went back out at 7:30, Sandy was frothing at the mouth! :eek: My husband was in the water room getting the water buckets ready and I went flying in there saying, something's wrong with Sandy! I flew back out to look at her and even though I have had no experience with this at all, I knew it was Choke. She was stretching her nose lifting her lip and frothing and dripping from her mouth. Choke is when there is something stuck in the esophagus. They can still breathe but they can't swallow anything past the obstruction. And horses cannot throw up. It could be anything that they ate too fast which at that point I assumed it was the grain. In fact, I thought, could the grain have been a little frozen in chunks that she swallowed? I didn't notice but then again I didn't really look at it that thoroughly. I had each bucket doled out earlier in the day so I can just grab them. They definitely could have been a little frozen. :sorry:

So I did a little panic.

I called my one vet immediately and she was stuck at home with two babies with her husband out of town. I called my other vet and he was on the way to the hospital! He was having some high blood pressure problems and wanted to get himself checked out. Those were the only two vets that I knew. The one going to the hospital gave me a name of somebody else but he was pretty far away.

So in the meantime, I called the vet tech to our one vet with the babies. She lives close by and I thought maybe she can tell me more of what's to do. She's been a vet tech for many, many years and is a wealth of information!

She told me that sometimes these things resolve themselves. She told me some of the same thing the others did. That I can massage the neck and see if I can displace any blockages. I can also take a syringe and rinse out her mouth a little being careful not to squirt it down her throat. I could also take her to U of I, an hour away, if I had a trailer. 🙄 But I sold my trailer a few years back.

So my husband and I were out there till 11:00pm walking her around, massaging her neck and even taking her into my tack room when we thought she was cold. At one point, we can see her kind of shivering and my husband said, can we bring her in the tack room with the heater? I said maybe! I looked in the room and the only thing I was really worried about was the paddle fan. But she's not that tall and as long as she doesn't rear up she'd be fine! So we walked her in there and being that she wasn't feeling well she was very docile and very content to be in there.
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So we sat with her for a little while longer and decided that she felt warm under her blanket. We didn't think she was cold. I said I think she's in pain. Not feeling good. And that's making her quiver a little. After doing everything we could she seemed a lot calmer. She wasn't frothing anymore and just stood there. We walked her back into her stall, put a camera on her and went to bed.
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I was really worried that she'd be gone in the morning. 😔 But she was still there in the morning. I checked the cameras recordings and it didn't look like she laid down all night. I know they sleep standing up but if they're comfortable they will lay down for a while too.

She hadn't eaten anything since that grain at 4:00pm the day before and I didn't want to give her anything until I knew that there was no blockage. Again, not looking terrible this morning but I knew she wasn't feeling good.

I was on the phone with the vet first thing in the morning and they came out about 11:30. She asked how cold was it in the barn. I said well, about 11°. She asked if I had some warm spot to put her in case we have to put a tube down her nose? We don't want the water freezing. I said well, we can bring her back into my tack room! So that's what we did.

First thing she did was take her temperature and she was running a temp. 103 . It should be 100.5. I said, that's why she wasn't moving much. She just wasn't feeling well. She gave her a shot of banamine for pain and fever. Then she started to try and get the tube down her. She started out trying to put the tube in with no tranquilizer or twitch. It's worth a try. But that didn't work. She finally had to give her a tranquilizer and when she still gave us a little trouble, they had to Twitch her. I always hate that. It looks so painful. But it works well in a lot of situations. Even with all that going on she still was backing up enough that she said, let's go back into her stall where she can back up against the wall instead of knocking things over in my tack room.

20260127_115900.webpThey had some trouble getting the tube through her nose and into the stomach. Especially since she had a tranquilizer. But after about 5 minutes she finally got it in and we walked her back into the warm tack room.

She poured some water through the tube and everything was clear!
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Annnnd pulling it out.
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But now we have to deal with some kind of infection. She said she probably aspirated some of it. So she gave her two more shots of an antibiotic. And I have to give her two more shots on Saturday. She can't have hay for a week. So I have to make a mash for her with warm water and her grain a few times a day. Also another medication in a powder form morning and night. Hopefully that I can put in the mash and she will eat it. But they told me it is bitter. Great. This ought to be fun. If she won't eat it in her mash, I will have to put it in a syringe to put directly in her mouth. I have to take the temperature a couple of times a day and if it goes back up, I have a tube of banamine paste with 3 doses in it to give her. By now, her temperature had already gone down to normal after she gave her the injection of banamine. So tonight I'll have to check it to see if it went back up. If so, I give her a dose of that paste. If it's normal, I can skip it.

She also took a couple of vials of blood to have it tested as to what kind of infection she has. She may come back in a week and take some more blood to make sure that they've taken care of it.

So the aftercare is going to be a lot of fun. I told her, you'd better write all this down! Of course she did. And she told me if you have trouble giving her the shot, call me and I'll come over. When she was giving the first two shots of the antibiotic she let me do the second one. It's a very long needle :shock: and the antibiotic is so thick I practically needed two hands to push it in! My horse was an angel and barely moved. Of course she was on the tranquilizer when I was doing it. But she said when she gave the banamine shot it was before they had tranqed her and she said she didn't even flinch. I said, okay! I think I can do this. It just kind of gives me the creeps.😖:green::p

While we were standing there talking, Sandy was resting her face on the step here. Like sleeping! The vet thought it was so cute she took a picture. And then I did LOL

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So I think she'll be good. Although sometimes once they choke they might do it again. So I'll have to be careful.

I just texted my husband and said you might want to pick up a heated muck bucket. The girls were telling me about that. I didn't know they had such a thing. It might be a good thing to keep her Mash warm and keep it from freezing in this horrible weather. He said he was going to pick me up one! He's a good man!❤️

I've got to give her some food pretty soon. She's got to be hungry. But looking at her through the camera she is just resting so that's good.
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Ah, the joys of horse ownership! And talking to the vet tech she told me, your girl is a very lucky girl! I said yeah? She said, you know how many people would have just put them down? She said, 'I see it all the time. People that I think are going to see it through and then they don't. I wonder how they sleep at night.' I'm sure she's got some sad stories.😥 Hopefully this one ends well. 🙏
 
Oh goodness, how scary but it's great you guys went the extra mile to help her. I've had to do a lot of things with our horses too but when it's successful it give you a good feeling that you were able to help them on your own.

Hoping she has a quick recovery!
 
Well, yesterday's feedings did not go well. 😕 Even though what I was giving her was the same grain as she always ate, apparently she doesn't like it softened with warm water. Go figure. I figured she'd be starving and would gladly eat it. She didn't. 😮‍💨

Then last night when I had to make up the powdered medicine I tried putting it in the mash. Yeah, that went over like a lead balloon too. So she went to sleep hungry again. And i threw it all away.

But she wasn't showing signs of anxiety or anything like, how come I'm not eating? So...🤷‍♀️

So this morning I did the medicine like I've done before. I took the powder in a bowl and mix it with applesauce. And then spooned that into a large syringe and just squirted it in her mouth. She was pretty good about it. The vet was saying it's quite bitter but I gave her an amount of applesauce with it. So that was a win this morning! I was really glad that I got that down.

She had no temperature again so I did not have to give her any medicine for that. But then I started with the mash again and she didn't want it. My vet texted to see how she was doing and I told her my troubles. I said I'm a little worried that she's not eating for 2 days. So she said let's try a handful of grain and a handful of hay and wet it down just a little bit. She was afraid she might choke again but she said in this cold weather we can't let her not eat. And I agreed.

So I took some of the softer hay with a handful of grain in her bucket and poured a little water over it. She loved it!
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Last night my husband came home with a heated water bucket for her Mash. I told him that it may help keep it from freezing. But now that I am giving her some hay and Grain and water together I'm just putting it in her grain bucket. So I figured I may as well use the heated bucket for the water. Since she's going to be stall bound for at least a week. This way I don't have to worry about it freezing. All these years we've never had heated buckets in the winter. We just gave them warm water at night and they learn to drink before it freezes. Then we just switch out the buckets in the morning, putting the frozen ones in the heated room to melt. They go out almost everyday and their water trough has a de-icer in it so they have that water all day. When they come in we just give them another bucket with warm water. It's worked all these years just fine. And I didn't have any place to plug them in except having an extension cord across the isle like I do when I put their fans up in the summer. So I put the bucket up with the extension cord that just barely reached the outlet.
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I told my husband, when you come home get me a longer cord. Unless of course, you want to pipe an outlet for me on her stall? 😇And while you're at, maybe you can do the other two. 🤪 He's thinking about it.😉😏

He's also picking up some Timothy Alfalfa pellets. My vet had suggested that to entice her to eat the mash. We'll see if that helps.

Around 1:00 I finally put the other two outside while Sandy ate some more food and I cleaned stalls. Looks like she might have a full belly now and is content to sleep. This is her right now through the camera.
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You're doing a terrific job, @MyBuddy - sick horses are a challenge. Sending healing thoughts your way. ❤️
Thank you! It has been a challenge especially with sub-zero weather! Although I don't know if I would have liked it in the middle of summer either. The Flies might have been a real PITA!

My vet just texted asking how she was doing. I told her as of this morning she still has no temperature. It went up to 101.1 last night and I thought, oh no, are we heading up? Before that it had always been 99 something. But this morning it was 99.7. Still normal. And she takes the powdered medicine mixed with applesauce quite well. I've been giving her small amounts of hay and grain several times during the day. And she seems to be eating it fine. I have my farrier coming today and I'll be updating him on what happened.
 
Is she better today? 🤞
She still has no temperature and is taking the meds fine by mouth. But I just didn't feel that she was eating like she should. Or like she normally does. I honestly thought she seems a little depressed and I thought maybe it was because she was left in the barn by herself. I had to the close door because it was so cold so she couldn't even see her Buddies. I was out there as often as i could to check on her and keep her company. But I just thought maybe she needs to go outside.

So this morning I texted the vet and told her what I thought. While waiting for an answer I finally decided to just go for it and I put her out. Shortly afterwards she answered and said as long as she's eating hay okay then yes, put her out. :thumbsup2:

She did fine and at one point looking out there I see the same picture I see a lot. The two mares right next to each other in the run in. Like two little girlfriends.
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Tomorrow I have to give her two shots of antibiotic. My vet texted me late this afternoon to make sure I was okay giving the shots. She would come out if I needed her. But I told her I'm sure I can handle it. I don't like to do it, but I can do it LOL

My other vet who was taking himself to the hospital that night I called, contacted me too. Just checking up on everything and I reiterated everything to him as far as what we did for her, what kind of medicine she's on and how she's doing so far. He was happy. And he was doing fine too. Just a spike in blood pressure. Hope that's all it was. I really like that guy. He's getting up in age like all of us. 😕
 
And Sandy... LOL my geriatric animals! 🥺

Still no temperature, but I noticed there was some Hay still in her stall from overnight and I gave her a very small amount of grain and she barely touched it. I put them all out together and she seems to be eating fine. S o maybe she eats better with company. I don't know. 🤷‍♀️
 
S o maybe she eats better with company.
I bet that is the case so it's good you let her go out with her friends. I'm sure it is depressing to be stuck in a stall all by yourself when life is going on for everyone else.
You sure have enough on your plate right now.
 
Well, I just gave Sandy the two antibiotic shots. I was so busy with Kali that I almost forgot about it. She took it like a champ though. Barely flinched. But boy, that stuff was hard to push in! I was using two hands, well two thumbs I should say, pushing that plunger! I almost was going to tell my husband to take over. That stuff is really thick! Or maybe it's just that I'm old.😜

I also thought it was odd that the vet gave me extra needles and told me to change them out before giving the shot. I don't know why? The needle that was on there I'm assuming was new. Anybody know why they want you to change those out? It just seemed like a waste to me. Perfectly good needles. Maybe they just feel like they come with the syringe and maybe they're compromised or something? I have no clue and I thought it was kind of weird but I did it. In fact, they gave me three extra. So now I have an extra needle that I don't know what I'm going to do with! LOL
 
Anybody know why they want you to change those out?
You stick the needle in their skin through microscopic dirt, possible bacteria, even after you have cleaned with alcohol there is chance of contamination on the needle. You don't want to bury that contaminated needle into the body and risk infection. Always use new needle, even if it's on the same horse.
Sounds like she's doing well. Pat yourself on the back for giving the injections. I hated doing it even after years of experience.
 
You stick the needle in their skin through microscopic dirt, possible bacteria, even after you have cleaned with alcohol there is chance of contamination on the needle. You don't want to bury that contaminated needle into the body and risk infection. Always use new needle, even if it's on the same horse.
But these were new needles. Never used New needles attached to a filled syringe. So they wanted me to take that needle off and put on one of the extra needles that they gave me. That's what I didn't understand.
 
I was thinking about it last night. I think they wanted me to change out the needles simply because they drew the medicine in with that needle and it would sit for several days until I gave it on Saturday. So they probably wanted a new one put on just as a precaution before I injected it. That makes a little more sense to me.
 

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